A new path toward relief and recovery.

old behaviors. new perspectives.

Breathwork for Recovery® is the first and only national organization comprised of certified mental health breathwork professionals with special training in trauma and recovery from substance use disorder, chemical dependency, eating disorders, compulsive behaviors, and other mental health issues.

Whether in a formal treatment setting, private recovery group, or one-on-one session, Breathwork for Recovery believes our clients deserve the highest quality care we can offer, and that our practitioners deserve the best education possible.

Breathwork for Recovery® provides a range of services, from group and individual sessions to private events. We also provide a one-of-a-kind 800-hour Guided Breathwork Training and Certification for professionals and clinicians who are ready to incorporate this powerful healing tool into their practice. Browse below for a full range of our offerings, or contact us today for a free consultation.

Let’s build a road to recovery together.

breathwork training. for teachers and practitioners

Breathwork is a simple and effective diaphragmatic breathing practice that quiets the busy chatter of the mind and makes it easier to feel connected to your body, while allowing the emotions we’ve suppressed (each and every one, not just the hard ones) to bubble up to the surface. Doing holotropic breathwork gives you an opportunity to process some of the tougher emotions, such as panic, shame, melancholy, grief, and sorrow. The ones you’ve run from, hidden, numbed, and shoved down in your belly, hoping they’d just go away. By working through these emotions, you’ll not only feel less burdened, but you might just find that underneath it all is the peace and relief you’ve been searching for your whole life – and has been within you the whole time.

Breathwork also offers its participants valuable personal perspective and psychological insight about toxic patterns and harmful behaviors. Throughout a session, it's not uncommon to discover and access personal forgiveness, weed out destructive negative core beliefs that hinder your growth, see beyond complex life choices, and, perhaps most profound of all, feel more connected to yourself and others. Every session is different for each participant, but ultimately they get to survey themselves through a lens of self-compassion without the defense mechanisms keeping them from the change they may require to grow and become their greatest champions.

Breathwork for Recovery advocates for using breathwork as a powerful adjunctive therapy for people experiencing and seeking recovery from abuse, addiction, trauma, eating disorder, mental health challenges, or other stigmatized diagnoses, as well as for families impacted by them. Breathwork is not a replacement for traditional therapy or psychiatry, nor is it a substitute for prescription medication. In addition to private and group sessions, Breathwork for Recovery also offers a weekly donation-based support group for folks seeking recovery of any kind but may not have the financial means for private sessions. Anyone committed to the path of recovery, whatever that means to them, is welcome. To attend, email us at info@breathworkforrecovery.com and we will provide you with a free link to join.

The true beauty of what breath work affords us is access to a healing modality that requires no previous experience, specific tools, or financial means to engage with it. All you need is the ability to breathe and the willingness to feel your feelings (and confront your own resistance). That’s it. Its impact is immediate and speaks for itself. You can feel as skeptical as you need to. Just be willing to do the work.

For those who benefit from a more tangible, scientific explanation, therapeutic breathwork as a healing tool is supported by evidence that shows the key benefit that regulated breath can have on the nervous system. At Breathwork for Recovery, we are forever curious about how practicing breathwork can help clients find integration for their trauma, decrease symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders, and ultimately increase their ability to connect to self and others. We know and regularly witness what it can do for someone experiencing trauma reactions and triggers and seek support and tools for moving through them, and we know it can help them form a new, more comfortable connection with their body. Breathwork allows for nervous system regulation, which for those who have experienced traumatic events, is often a gift beyond hope. We also acknowledge that conscious breathwork has become a core component of many of our clients' spiritual lives. To say that a breathwork healer can be a transformative and powerful tool is an understatement. Breathwork is more than just meditation. It’s more than just a trauma integration technique. And it’s more than just a spiritual practice. It’s life. Breathwork provides an almost instantaneous reprieve from anxiety whilst granting a measure of profound clarity and relaxation.

If you're interested in learning more about breathwork, there are many options available to you. You can start by searching for a breathwork facilitator near you or looking for breathwork workshops in your area. Additionally, you can consider enrolling in a Breathworks teacher training program or pursuing breathwork specialist certification in Los Angeles or other locations. Many practitioners and organizations offer classes and workshops designed to teach breathwork practices, and some may even provide you with the opportunity to become a certified breathwork teacher yourself.

Breathwork can be an incredibly transformative and powerful tool, whether you're seeking relief from anxiety or looking to explore deeper emotional and psychological patterns. It's important to remember that breathwork is not a substitute for traditional therapy or medical treatment, but it can be a valuable complement to other forms of support. If you're interested in exploring breathwork as part of your healing journey, consider reaching out to a practitioner or organization to learn more about how this powerful practice can support you.

Breath = life. Many indigenous cultures have linked the breath to lifeforce throughout the ages. Whether it’s Chi, Pneuma, Nephesh, or Prana, it lives inside each one of us waiting for us to connect with it. By tuning into your breath (life-force), you can spark startling results. At Breathwork for Recovery, we help people sweep up the physical and emotional detritus that has kept them stuck in ruinous patterns controlling the narrative of their lives. It assists in interrupting these abusive cycles long enough to experience sensations of love, respect, compassion, and even joy. 

why do breathwork training with us?

Not only are we breathwork practitioners, we are also clinicians, all with clinical training and many with certification or licensure outside of just breathwork. We believe in the value of comprehensive training led by vetted professionals and supported by hands-on facilitation and supervision. We believe our breathwork teacher training is some of the best in the world, and we practice the breathwork techniques we teach.

There is no substitute for a quality breathwork facilitator. We are working with people’s trauma. We are working with people’s spirit, too. Neither one should be taken lightly, and these kinds of skills can not be provided and honed in a weekend workshop.

Our facilitators receive weekly clinical coaching and additional trauma informed breathwork training offered by professionals with supplemental specialties, including the inimitable Dr. Janoc Vance. Our culture and values are intimately tied to the work we do. There is no one way to heal, nor one "correct" way to find and maintain recovery, and our facilitators are committed to their own healing as much as their clients'. Breathwork helps us work with clients to create a pathway to recovery through harnessing the intrinsic healing power that lives in each individual, and by confronting systems of oppression that keep us all locked in cycles of harm.

get breathwork certified.

Looking for a breathwork certification? Looking to build your clinical skills and be an even better provider? Breathwork for Recovery's Breathwork Clinician Certification (BCC) provides the most thorough and comprehensive breathwork facilitator training available today. It is the only program that offers an 800-hour clinical breathwork training that not only covers breathwork facilitation, but also counseling skills, trauma resolution, social justice frameworks, anti-racism training, gender and sexuality expansiveness, and much more, all led by professionals at the top of their fields.

Our training helps create and nurture facilitators and professionals who stand out in their field, and our curriculum is setting a national standard for breathwork certification and training.

Breathwork for Recovery is a community committed to helping reduce the suffering in both the individual and the society. You can’t help change one without committing to change the other. This is the Breathwork for Recovery difference.

what to know about our breathwork teacher training

how does breathwork work?

Breathwork is a steady-paced two-stage breathing pattern that allows you to take control of your breathing, which helps pull your nervous system out of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn states. It also brings your social engagement system back online. 

Despite claims otherwise, breathwork does not “clear trauma out of the body” because, frankly, that’s not how trauma works. We need to be able to connect to the imprints left by trauma without getting flooded by the experience. This is the power that breath can have to help people recover from trauma. Our breathwork training dives further into this.

how is breathwork a trauma modality?

To heal trauma, we have to energize it in some way and there are many modalities that are proven effective at this: somatic experiencing, EMDR, psychodrama, breathwork, and more. Breathwork does not “clear” trauma so much as it allows you to connect to your own innate healing ability and work through those traumatic events in a safer, contained place in order to reduce the level of debilitating control it has in our lives. It allows for trauma-integration via going into those dark moments in our lives with a helper, and confronting what’s there. Anyone who has participated in our breathwork teacher training understands this.

Breathwork allows you to safely confront the moments in your life that should never have happened and empower you to recognize and trust that they do not define you and do not control you. You can use breathwork to help your body respond to threatening, stressful, or potentially traumatizing events using the very best, most constructive response it knows how. Imagine how it would feel to be able to connect with others and ourselves and feel comfortable doing it. Imagine how it would feel to be able to get activated or triggered and, instead of spinning out, be able to manage the panic or anxiety and continue with your day. These are trauma-specific results you can find through breathwork and breathwork training.

what else can I expect during breathwork?

In addition to the mental and emotional responses previously mentioned, some people see visions during their breathwork sessions. Breathwork can induce an altered state that some people find to be just as healing as the nervous system regulation it provides.

Some people describe breathwork as a brain-altering practice, and that's technically true. We have 5 different brain wave states: Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta, and Gamma. By changing our brain wave state, or balancing them, we can recalibrate the brain. That can mean alleviation of symptoms for those struggling with ADD, anxiety, or depression. Breathwork allows us to access these different states and invite inspiration, creativity, processing of subconscious emotions, and even connecting to a spiritual consciousness -- all while conscious and awake.

These altered states states can be groundbreaking in their ability to cut through traumatic events. There is powerful research being done about using psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, ketamine, LSD, MDMA and the like to assist with healing depression, anxiety, and trauma. Breathwork can have similar effects, the main difference being that it does not involve substance use or ingesting anything. For breathwork, you already possess the required tools and just need a guide to teach you how.

what else can breathwork do for me?

Breathing regulates your nervous system, and you can take direct control of your autonomic nervous system via the use of your breath. You can raise or lower your body temperature, your heart rate, and even your anxiety. Taking control of your breath is one of the most powerful things we can do each day. Breathwork techniques are a way to do this.

how long should a breathwork session last?

A breathing session can last anywhere between 7 and 45 minutes, starting with active breath and ending with passive (slow, regular) breathing. The active portion is the hard part for most folks, and much of this portion is spent working through your own resistance as you get closer to the passive portion. The passive portion is when most people experience a sense of peace and tranquility.

It is important to keep in mind that this two-part breath is not meant to be done for long periods of time, just like high-intensity interval training isn’t meant to be done for long periods of time. Bursts. There’s power in that.

Healing trauma must be done at your own pace, otherwise you risk experiencing re-traumatization. Your guide, therapist or counselor, or medicine folk can encourage and prod you along the way, but you are ultimately in control of the pace you take.

what makes our breathwork teacher training different than others?

What makes our breathwork training program different than others? Why train with us when there are a thousand trainings out there to choose from?

1. Training Content

The first difference you’ll notice is that we provide double the amount of training that the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance recommends as a minimum amount of recommended training. We do this because they do not require their approved schools to include essential topics, including anti-racism, LTGBTQ+ identities, consent, boundaries, decolonization, and spiritual bypass in their curricula.

We personally feel that to become a qualified practitioner, and especially one who works with the nervous system (as we do when using any breathwork technique), that one must at the very minimum cover these topics. Breathwork is not some simple thing you can teach in 30 (or 100 hours). Somatic Experiencing practitioners require around 500 hours of training. A yoga instructor must complete a minimum of 200 hours of training. A manicurist, 300 hours of training minimum. A fast-food worker? On the job training of 80 hours. All of these professions involve working directly with people and providing an important service that can impact a customer's or client's sense of wellbeing. We believe that breathwork practitioners should also have a representative amount of training and supervision in order to provide this trauma-healing modality.

At Breathwork for Recovery we believe that 30 or 60 or 75 hours is simply not enough training to make one competent enough to lead this work with individuals safely and effectively, knowing the variety of issues that may present during a session.

2. Our Team of Professionals

Our training features a team of experts teaching their respective disciplines. This isn’t a one-person-show, for many reasons. We believe it is unethical to have one person teach the entirety of a training. No one learns this work in a vacuum, so why would we teach you in one? Additionally, there are tens of new programs springing up every month, many built by individuals who have stolen already-stolen content. We see copy written on websites that was clearly pilfered from trainings we attended in 2010, and repackaged as original material. Our team has created unique content drawn from their decades of experience as therapists, breathwork trainers and facilitators, trauma workers, and doctors.

3. Experience

One of our lead trainers boasts almost 15 years of experience themselves. Looking at our team of educators and adding their experience hours together, we're looking at more than 100 years of combined experience from a diverse faculty of experts. You can’t get that from a one-person-show.

We are a community of individuals committed to utilizing breathwork and other complementary techniques in their highest ethical forms. Most of us have been using this technique to help clients resolve trauma in mental health facilities, addiction treatment centers, community support groups, and individually, and we hold a hell of a lot of experience in a variety of difficult settings.

4. Continuing Support and Education

We are committed to our students and clients. Our extensive training doesn’t stop when you graduate; we provide ongoing support and education to our alumni and have a list of excellent providers who can offer further training and continued education. We understand that to be at the top of this field, ongoing training is a necessity. Who would want to learn from someone who has stopped the learning process themselves, or who pretends they have it all figured out? Our breathing coach certification and each breathwork coach are focused on this continuity.

5. Client Care and Safety

Our client care is top notch. We have a formal grievance process whereby a client who has experienced harm by a practitioner can file a formal grievance, and the practitioner can be stripped of their BCC certification. This is an important step for client care. Because the breathwork field is unregulated, anyone can claim to be a breathwork practitioner or breathwork teacher or trainer. And because there is no oversight process, many bad actors harm clients and can continue to practice, despite many public reports, reviews, and testimonials outlining the harm they experienced. These bad actors are often the same folks offering training with stolen content promising certification in 30 hours. That is unacceptable and abhorrent.

common questions before starting an online breathwork course or online breathwork teacher training program

Is breathwork scientifically proven?

There have been numerous peer reviewed studies validating what pranayama practitioners have been claiming for centuries (say fifth or sixth century BCE, see the above links for more info"). We believe it’s not only important to back up the claims you are making about what you are saying, but it’s also to recognize the destructive power of scientific materialism (the belief that only things proven via science have any value). Indigenous leaders and practitioners have been developing and utilizing non-western healing modalities for centuries, yet colonization has effectively erased their origins and stories from the record. We need to acknowledge this harm and erasure, be accountable for our biases and judgments, and to listen to and trust the indigenous leaders, healers, and tools that so many Western practitioners -- especially white people -- benefit from today. Adding to this, understanding the healing process involved in these modalities is crucial for appreciating their effectiveness and promoting holistic well-being.

Lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.

You don’t have to subscribe to any spiritual beliefs to participate in or provide breathwork, but for many, it can be a deeply spiritual experience and process. It’s fine to be skeptical about this practice, too! In fact, we encourage it. Most of the time, a person only has to try breathwork once to have a life-altering experience and notice their skepticism shift. For many people, the trauma load in their bodies is not high enough to prevent them from experiencing tangible effects the first time. For others, it may take time to titrate up to a full session. We work with all client types and curate an experience based on specific trauma protocols (when needed) and, for others who can jump right in, we help them manage anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Our breathwork classes online and breath coach training both incorporate conscious breathing practices and are focused on physical and mental health.

Is breathwork dangerous?

Anything can be dangerous if not used appropriately, or if not enough information is provided for clients to make an informed decision about what they are engaging in, including practices such as connected breathing.

While several deaths have been attributed to the Wim Hof method (a stolen Tummo practice) there have been no reported injuries from practicing the breathwork technique we use. That said, it is not safe to use if you have a history of seizures or seizure disorder like epilepsy. Additionally, not enough research has been done for people who are pregnant and want to participate, so we don’t recommend it for pregnant people without them getting permission in writing from their doctors or midwives.

If you are a trauma survivor, it is not recommended that you practice this technique unless its with a qualified practitioner. Emotional flooding and flashbacks can occur, so we recommend you engage in this work with a trauma-specific focused practitioner.

Remember: you can’t “clear,” “release,” “let go of,” or “cure” trauma with breathwork. You can integrate it, heal it, reframe it, reorganize it, and reduce its impact -- but “clearing” it is not a thing. Anyone who knows the bare minimum about trauma understands this. We are not sure when this languaging began, but it isn’t supported by any trauma practitioner we know.

Is breathwork safe to do daily?

Hell yes. Please develop a daily practice! It can change your life! And if you are looking for online breathwork, we can help with that too! Our breathwork teacher training course can help with this. We incorporate breathing techniques into our breathwork coach certification that will hopefully get you on that path with us.